The Star: April 12, 2018

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Thursday April 12 2018
Fire rages, homes at risk
Gallery director repelled army
• By Julia Evans
EVEN THE army couldn’t break
Blair Jackson’s artistic passion
on the night of the February 22,
2011, earthquake.
But it’s a story the new art gallery
director has never spoken of
publicly.
“It’s not something I’ve told
anybody, but I think it appears
in Bob Parker’s book,” he said.
Mr Jackson, who was deputy
director of the Christchurch
Art Gallery at the time, said
he fielded a late night call from
the Civil Defence controller the
night of the quake.
“I was at home with my family,
in that same state of shock or
concern that everyone was feeling,”
he said.
He was told the army wanted
to clear artworks from an exhibition
space so it could be turned
into more offices.
“The Civil Defence team and
army were using the foyer as
a base but they needed more
room.”
Instead of letting the army
storm in, he refused and
organised a team of gallery
staff to take the paintings down
for safe storage early in the
morning.
The gallery spaces had been
put into lockdown after the
BASE: Former Mayor Bob Parker at the Civil Defence headquarters, which was set up in the
Christchurch Art Gallery following the February 22, 2011, earthquake. PHOTO: JOHN COLLIE
shaking to protect the art, a lot
of which was borrowed, he said.
“At that time all of the doors
were locked, security staff had
locked down all our gallery
spaces. A lot of those works were
valuable and on loan to us from
other institutions, they were in
our care.”
So he told Civil Defence, it was
not going to be possible.
“What I said is: ‘No we’re not
prepared to do that. That’s just
not a responsible solution.’ And
I said I would have a team here
first thing in the morning to deinstall
the exhibition properly,”
he said.
He said that’s exactly what
happened.
“We took it down ourselves
and it was the most sensible
outcome. There’s a way to
move paintings, particularly
when they don’t belong to
you.”
•Our People, p24,25
Councillor’s
notices on stop
signs removed
• By Julia Evans
CITY COUNCILLOR Aaron
Keown has been rapped over the
knuckles for putting a notice on
a pole holding a compulsory stop
sign.
Cr Keown put signs up at Harewood,
Breens and Gardiners Rds,
encouraging residents to submit
on the city council’s Long Term
Plan.
But he put them at the bottom
of stop signs, so the city council
removed them.
A New Zealand Transport
Agency spokesperson said placing
signs there is “not helpful” as it
distracts drivers who may read
the notice instead of paying attention
to the stop control.
“You are not legally allowed
to add other signs onto road
safety signs or poles for the same
reason.”
A city council spokeswoman
said a member of the roading
team took them down.
But Cr Keown told The Star he
still did not consider it a safety issue,
it was a “long bow” to draw.
“In no way could they be distracting,
in fact, you’re more likely
to slow down and stop for a few
seconds to read them.”
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